Ex Anatolia Lux: Menorahs from the Synagogue at Sardis

Abstract The Sardis Synagogue is a key monument of diaspora Judaism, whose rich visual language runs through its decoration and furnishings. Votive texts, inscribed reliefs, and freestanding lampstands found in the building make clear the central importance of the menorah as a resonant religious image but also a functional object. Differences in material, size, form, and decoration reflect multiple sources for the Sardis menorahs, with imported examples apparently guiding the production of distinctive local versions over two centuries. As a group, they document the diffusion of visual ideas as well as contacts with other Jewish communities in late antiquity.

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RABBINIC MIDRASH: PUBLIC OR PRIVATE

Review of Rabbinic Judaism ◽

10.1163/15700700260253930 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 141-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Gary Porton

Keyword(s):

Early Modern ◽

Late Antiquity ◽

Medieval Period ◽

Jewish Communities ◽

Literary Phenomenon

AbstractThis paper argues that Rabbinic Midrash is a definable literary phenomenon that has its primary locus within the Rabbinic schoolhouses of late antiquity. It argues against the claim that much of our current Rabbinic Midrash originated in the Rabbinic sermons of late antiquity. While some rabbis may have delivered sermons in synagogues or to the "community" in different public settings, we shall see that there are few specific indications of that fact. When we find rabbis within the context of synagogues, they most often are not delivering sermons. And when rabbis "preach" to the community, it is often in cities known for their Rabbinic academies. It therefore is unclear exactly to whom these "sermons" were delivered. Medieval and early modern sources indicate that Rabbinic sermons were a part of synagogue activity on Sabbaths as well as on special occasions, such as weddings and funerals. Even during these periods, however, the exact content of these sermons is in many cases far from certain. Also, changes that occurred within the Jewish communities and in their surrounding environments help to explain why Jewish sermons appear at that time. The existence of Rabbinic sermons during the medieval period accordingly does not testify to their presence in late antiquity.

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The Syrian–Palestinian Milieu in Late Antiquity

The Golden Calf between Bible and Qur'an ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198852421.003.0006 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 207-262

Author(s):

Michael E. Pregill

Keyword(s):

Late Antiquity ◽

Historical Context ◽

Jewish Tradition ◽

Late Antique ◽

Jewish Communities ◽

Early Christian ◽

Christian Literature ◽

Anti Jewish

This chapter focuses on a unique corpus of early Christian literature in Syriac that reflects a synthesis of older patristic views of the Calf episode with specific themes that seem to have circulated widely in the Eastern Christian milieu, shared in common between communities of Jewish and Christian exegetes in this period. While continuing the tradition of anti-Jewish arguments predicated on the abiding impact of Israel’s sin with the Calf, authors such as Ephrem, Aphrahat, and Jacob of Serugh also developed a unique view of Aaron that dictated a more apologetic position regarding his culpability; this precisely paralleled the development of similar views of Aaron in Jewish tradition. This material provides us with a lens through which to examine the phenomenon of exegetical approaches that are held in common by different communities, yet deployed for opposite purposes. The chapter concludes by considering a possible historical context to Syrian Christian polemic against Jews based on the Calf narrative: the revival of priestly leadership, or at least interest in the priesthood and its role, among contemporary Jewish communities, especially in late antique Palestine.

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Crying Out for Rain: The Human, The Holy, and the Earth in the Ritual Fasts of Rabbinic Literature

Worldviews Global Religions Culture and Ecology ◽

10.1163/156853509x438607 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 219-238 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Julia Watts Belser

Keyword(s):

Late Antiquity ◽

Rabbinic Literature ◽

Close Reading ◽

Babylonian Talmud ◽

Jewish Communities ◽

Religious Significance ◽

Collective Response ◽

The Earth ◽

Spiritual Crisis ◽

Suffering God

AbstractThis article examines the religious significance of rain in Tractate Ta'anit, a 6th century volume of the Babylonian Talmud that addresses fasts in response to drought among rabbinic Jewish communities in late antiquity. Through a close reading of several key narratives within the tractate, this article examines how Tractate Ta'anit incorporates rain symbolism into key rabbinic conceptions of Torah, revelation, and divine compassion. As the tractate crafts rain into a symbol that expresses God's presence and relationship with Israel, it also articulates drought as the essential expression of divine absence. Within the tractate, fasting serves as the quintessential collective response to the physical and spiritual crisis of drought. Fasting practice in Tractate Ta'anit fashions the vulnerable collective body into an instrument particularly suited to cry out for divine answer. By invoking and intensifying the experience of suffering caused by drought, the community uses its communal body to align itself with both a suffering God and a suffering earth, each of which yearn for reconciliation.

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